BBC News Online looks back on the career of Vladimiro Montesinos which climaxed in scandal and intrigue in the Peruvian presidency.

For years Vladimiro Montesinos Torres was the 'eminence gris' in Peru behind the presidency of Alberto Fujimori.

The tragedy for ordinary Peruvians is that they enthusiastically voted for Mr Fujimori in 1989 believing one of his key campaign pledges - to end the country's rampant corruption.

Fujimori distanced himself from his former ally

Yet throughout the 1990s Vladimiro Montesinos, as head of the intelligence service, was propping up Mr Fujimori by trying to bribe anyone who could be useful to the president.

His arrest in Venezuela has brought to an end a chapter of Peruvian history that began in 1989 with great hope but climaxed last year when Mr Fujimori took refuge in Japan following mounting accusations of government corruption involving Mr Montesinos.

Private lawyer

Mr Montesinos began his career in the Peruvian armed forces in the early 1970s, but in 1977 was thrown out of the army and sentenced to a year in jail.

In the 1980s, he began a fresh career as a private lawyer in the Peruvian capital, Lima.

Among his clients were several people charged with drug-trafficking offences, and others charged with tax evasion and fraud.

He is said to have met Alberto Fujimori when the latter was running for president for the first time in 1989-1990.

Mr Montesinos helped him over various charges of fraud, and is also credited with proving by means of a much-questioned birth certificate that Mr Fujimori had been born in Peru, and not in Japan - which would have excluded him from standing for the presidency.

Accusations

Following Mr Fujimori's election, Mr Montesinos was put in charge of anti-drug operations carried out in conjunction with the United States.

He was also closely involved in the successful campaign to root out the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrilla movement.

Mr Montesino's power increased after the 1992 when President Fujimori suspended the constitution, closing down congress and the judiciary and taking a stranglehold on all aspects of institutional life in Peru.

Bribery allegations led to protests demanding Mr Montesinos' arrest

It was Mr Montesinos who helped appoint the new members of the armed forces' high command, and supreme court judges.

In 1997 he was Mr Fujimori's close adviser during the hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence, which ended when all the members of the Tupac Amaru group were killed.

His activities as security adviser to President Fujimori and as secretly-appointed head of the Peruvian intelligence services led to many accusations of human rights abuses against him.

None of these accusations was ever proved.

Direct challenge

As head of the intelligence services, Mr Montesinos was said to be responsible for an extensive network of informers which he used to threaten and blackmail opponents of the president, but again, nothing was ever traced back to him directly.

Protesters demanding that all the Vladi videos be made public

It appears that it was these shady practices which ultimately brought about his downfall.

According to Peruvian press reports, the video film taken of him allegedly bribing a member of an opposition party to switch his allegiance to Mr Fujimori before elections last year was shot with one of his own hidden cameras.

When the video became public knowledge, President Fujimori was forced not only to distance himself from Mr Montesinos but to announce that he was resigning and calling early elections to find a successor.

Mr Montesinos headed for exile in Panama, where he apparently has business interests.

But a month later, the Panamanian authorities decided they would not grant him asylum there, and Vladimiro Montesinos flew back to Peru, apparently to mount a direct challenge to President Fujimori.

There had been fears that he might try to instigate a military coup. But following the formal resignation of Mr Fujimori on 20 November, the Peruvian military swore to abide by the constitution, and to respect any political changes made after the president's departure.

All the time the mystery around Mr Montesinos grew as he had gone into hiding, with reports of him being spotted in various parts of the world and rumours that he had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance.

At the same time the shocking extent to which he had bribed the higher echelons of Peruvian society became apparent. Mr Montesinos left behind some 700 Vladi Videos, as they have become known.

Those that have been broadcast show him successfully giving money to a range of people to secure their support.